Move Over iControlPad, the iPhone Game Pad Is Here

The sad fact of the matter is we’re never going to see the release of the long fabled iControlPad iPhone case, which would allow you to add a D-Pad and physical buttons to your phone.

For us jailbroken retro-gamers with an affinity for emulation, that’s pretty sad, but maybe there’s hopes: the iPhone Game Pad has now come along, adding the same functionality to the iPhone.

Unfortunately, right now, it only works with the original iPhone, with 3G and 3GS support coming soon. Double unfortunate is that, as usual, this seemingly wonderful product isn’t in the shipping phase, with its creators now looking for a manufacturing partner.

Granted, it’s understandable why iPhone accessory manufacturers both wouldn’t and couldn’t sell an accessory that depends on jailbreaking, especially if they want to keep a good relationship with Apple. Still, I hope someday one of these iPhone control pad projects gets off the ground: there’s plenty of iPhone gamers out there who miss the tactility of physical buttons underneath our thumbs.

About the author:

John Brownlee is a Contributing Editor. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.